I was wondering about that too, but I’m optimistic as the GAPPS installer on the FP1 can do it…
What the installer appears to do is download a zip file to a cache somewhere, restart the phone, and apply the zip file from recovery. If f-droid is (re-)packaged by Fairphone in the same way, it should hopefully be able to be installed as a system apṗ.
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I’m sure Google wouldn’t allow it.
On the other hand if the updater app could install F-Droid as a system app that could work on FP OS too.
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I think we should think also about other pre-installed apps. I love to have trackID and samba network music player on my smartphones.
I know once it would be far too much, but why not two installers? A clean one and a second with extra apps?
Or clean one with upgrade option to the other one?
Ben
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I totally support the suggestion to integrate F-Droid into FP Open OS. Maybe in the future different selected basic apps, like micro-g network location provider will be included, too. Those would enhance the out-of-the-box experience of FP Open OS dramatically.
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I think it would be overkill if a music player and a music recognition app is pre-installed. There are tons of apps in this segment. What if someone wants Shazam and VLC instead? So I think one should install his preferred music player and music recognition app on his/her own.
I think the pre-installed apps in Fairphone Open OS should be limited to absolute basic apps (like a file explorer) and those where the later installation is very complicated/impossible (like an app-store).
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I agree with @TobiasF but also like @Johannes’ idea and understand @Hecki and @StephanK.
It would be great to have an openOS working almost like the GMS one, i.e. with basic apps and nothing extra to be done for a working GPS. But you can’t force someone to use an app rather than another.
Maybe a good compromise (but I don’t know about feasibility) would be to use to updater to install a “pure” OS and then give different options:
- Exit the updater app to configure the phone by oneself
- install an app-store
If one chooses option 2, after the installation of F-droid, 2 choices:
- exit
- install other apps
- 2a) choose a package (one or many options of some of the basic apps, as for OpenGAPPS)
- 2b) customize the installation:
- 2b.1: choose a browser (amongst some choices or option to display all current choices on F-droid)
- 2b.2: choose an email client
- 2b.3: choose a music player
- etc. (with the option to skip what you don’t need/want)
It would be great, but it looks complicated…
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The thing to avoid is accidentally starting your own app-store / repository. I can see why it would be convenient to be able to add a couple of system apps via the updater app (stuff that can be a bit tricky to install like location services / needs to be a system app / is device specific), but the majority of apps doesn’t need deeper system integration and should remain in the app stores that they’re in now. I also regard f-droid as different as it can update itself. For most other apps there would be no direct update path until the relevant app-store is installed, and reprogramming the updater to also update individual apps is overkill.
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No, because there’s no reason to favor one certain third-party app store (although I like and use F-Droid myself). You can download and use the app stores (for instance, F-Droid, Amazon app store, SlideMe, …) you want – that’s fair and enough.
I think Fairphone Open OS should be open itself, but not make “openness decisions” for users.
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If OS/updater/… suggests to install F-Droid as a system app and I can decline it if I don’t want to use it then everything’s fine.
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Can pre-installed apps update themselves? If anything, pre-installed apps make me think of the signature troubles I always got when I tried to update the pre-installed iFixit app…
If the signature could be an issue then it’s probably best to let the Fairphone Updater handle all of this (ask user, download latest F-Droid client from official repo, install as system app).
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tl;dr: I agree with @chrisse and @Stefan. Make it easy to use F-droid, without forcing people too much.
I have a FP1 with F-droid without anything from google, and would love to keep it this way in the future. I think the open OS should be as open as possible, while being as easy to use as possible… So having F-droid as a system app is probably good, as it allows to uncheck the “unsafe apk”-flag. But I really hate the fact that the ifixit-app on my FP1 is neither updateable nor removeable in F-droid, and constantly triggers the “there are updates available” notification. This should be avoided for F-droid.
Also, it would be nice to prepare some easy way to install an alternative to google location service. I currently use one of the unifiedNLP things with an offline database, which works fine, but I had to invest quite some time to find a solution which works and has a reasonably up-to-date celltower database.
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Just a quick off-topic note: In the view for a specific app you can press the three-dot menu and then choose “ignore all updates”. That doesn’t of course solve the issue with not being able to update in the first place…
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Surely including F-Droid would make things more comfortable, and it was the first app I installed. But if I install FP Open OS I don’t want pre-selected software. If you include F-Droid there are - as the discussion shows - a reason to also install some other “comfortable” software - where does this end?
I would rather advocate a clear information about how to do things in FP Open. The Installation Guide includes as a Hint the important reference to F-Droid, but many more things have to be learned by following the discussions in the forum (such as GMS or GPS enhancement). It would make it a lot easier if that knowledge was coming as a one stop shop (and a trustworthy source) from FP.
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If F-Droid was a system app it could update iFixit and other system apps.
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I think this would be a huge security risk.
@paulakreuzer said that Google wouldn’t allow it, which is probably true. There are good reasons for that. Apps on F-Droid don’t go through the same vetting and testing that Play Store apps are subjected to. This means that it is comparatively easy for malware to appear in third-party app stores.
There is good data to back this claim. For example, the 2015 Android Security Report shows that third-party app stores increase the risk of potentially harmful apps by more than 3x.
Please consider that not all Fairphone users are as tech-savvy as the crowd on this forum. Most users simply have no need for root, F-Droid, and similar features. Giving them such power only puts them at risk. On the other hand, somebody who really wants F-Droid can install it fairly easily.
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You are right, F-Droid’s testing is not the same, it’s much more thorough. They actually build the apps from the code themselves so they don’t just test for viruses but also exclude all kind of spyware and exclude or at least flag (antifeatures) all apps that contain ads or non-free components.
On the Play store you get all kinds of Apps that spy on you and spam you with unwanted ads.
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Google has nothing to command on FP Open. FP Open doesn’t have to pass the Compatibility Test Suite nor comply with any Google guidelines because it’s based on an open codebase (ie. AOSP) without the GMS jail.
On the contrary, Google can (and will) determine which components FP GMS OS couldn’t include because they need to get a license from Google to include their GMS (Google Play, Google Play Services, et al.)
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Yes I was only talking about FP OS of course.
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